Brooks: except by Christ

Saturday, July 13, 2013
Meditation:
    As it is written: “I have made you a father of many nations.” He is our father in the sight of God, in whom he believed—the God who gives life to the dead and calls things that are not as though they were.
    —Romans 4:17 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Only when a man tries to live the divine life can the divine Christ manifest Himself to him. Therefore, the true way for you to find Christ is not to go groping in a thousand books. It is not for you to try evidences about a thousand things that people have believed of Him, but it is for you to undertake so great a life, so devoted a life, so pure a life, so serviceable a life, that you cannot do it except by Christ, and then see whether Christ helps you. See then whether there comes to you the certainty that you are a child of God, and the manifestation of the child of God becomes the most credible, the most certain thing to you in all of history.
    ... Phillips Brooks (1835-1893), Addresses, Philadelphia: Henry Altemus, 1895, p. 53 (see the book)
    See also Rom. 4:17; Job 19:25-27; John 11:25-26; Rom. 8:10-11; Col. 1:27; Heb. 11:13-16
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, I can only follow You with Your strength. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Moody: daily grace

Friday, July 12, 2013
Meditation:
    [The LORD] humbled you, causing you to hunger and then feeding you with manna, which neither you nor your fathers had known, to teach you that man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD.
    —Deuteronomy 8:3 (NIV)
Quotation:
    If we would be strong and vigorous, we must go to God daily and get grace. A man can no more take in a supply of grace for the future than he can eat enough today to last him for the next six months; or take sufficient air into his lungs at once to sustain life for a week to come. We are permitted to draw upon God’s store of grace from day to day, as we need it.
    ... Dwight Lyman Moody (1837-1899), Sovereign Grace, Chicago, Ill.: Bible Institute Colportage Association, 1891, reprint, Echo Library, 2010, p. 33 (see the book)
    See also Deut. 8:3; Ex. 16:21-23; Job 23:12; Pr. 30:8; Matt. 6:11; Luke 11:3; John 6:35
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, I must seek You daily. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Pink: Christian warfare

Thursday, July 11, 2013
    Feast of Benedict of Nursia, Father of Western Monasticism, c.550
Meditation:
    For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds.
    —2 Corinthians 10:3-4 (NIV)
Quotation:
    The Christian is engaged in a warfare. There is a fight before him, hence armour is urgently needed. It is impossible for us to stand against the wiles of the Devil unless we avail ourselves of the provision which God has made for enabling us to stand.
    ... A. W. Pink (1886-1952), Practical Christianity, Sovereign Grace Publishers, Nov 1, 2001, p. 124 (see the book)
    See also 2 Cor. 10:3-4; Mark 16:17-18; Luke 10:19-20; 21:17-19; John 12:31; Rom. 8:38-39; 13:12; 2 Cor. 6:4-10; Eph. 6:10-18; Col. 2:15; 1 Thess. 5:8
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, teach me to use the tools You have provided. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Vidler: the only real servants

Wednesday, July 10, 2013
Meditation:
I am become a stranger unto my brethren,
    and an alien unto my mother’s children.
For the zeal of thine house hath eaten me up;
    and the reproaches of them that reproached thee are fallen upon me.
    —Psalm 69:8-9 (KJV)
Quotation:
    We must try to be at one and the same time for the Church and against the Church. They alone can serve her faithfully whose consciences are continually exercised as to whether they ought not, for Christ’s sake, to leave her.
    ... Alec R. Vidler (1899-1991), quoting an unknown German theological student in Essays in Liberality, SCM Press, 1957, p. 27 (see the book)
    See also Ps. 69:8-9; Judges 10:6; Matt. 21:12-13; Mark 11:15-17; John 2:13-17; 2 Cor. 10:4; 1 Tim. 6:3-5; 2 Pet. 2:1-3; Rev. 3:1-2
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You purified Your church. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Bloesch: prayer in the Spirit

Tuesday, July 9, 2013
Meditation:
    But you, dear friends, build yourselves up in your most holy faith and pray in the Holy Spirit.
    —Jude 1:20 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Prayer in the Spirit is socially revolutionary because it prepares the way for the advance of the gospel in society, and the gospel carries with it new social values that contain the seeds for a new society based on the righteousness of the kingdom.
    ... Donald G. Bloesch (1928-2010), The Struggle of Prayer, Harper & Row, 1980, p. 43 (see the book)
    See also Jude 1:20; Zech. 12:10; Rom. 8:15; Gal. 4:6; Eph. 2:22; 6:18
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, through prayer, align me with Your holy will. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Forsyth: in Christ's name

Monday, July 8, 2013
Meditation:
    [Jesus:] “In that day you will no longer ask me anything. I tell you the truth, my Father will give you whatever you ask in my name. Until now you have not asked for anything in my name. Ask and you will receive, and your joy will be complete.”
    —John 16:23-24 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Ask for everything you can ask in Christ’s name, i.e. everything desirable by a man who is in Christ’s kingdom of God, by a man who lives for it at heart, everything in tune with the purpose and work of the kingdom in Christ. If you are in that kingdom, then pray freely for whatever you need or wish to keep you active and effective for it, from daily bread upwards and outwards.
    ... P. T. Forsyth (1848-1921), The Soul of Prayer [1916], Regent College Publishing, 2002, p. 76 (see the book)
    See also John 16:23-24; Matt. 6:6-8; 7:11; 9:37-38; 18:19-20; 21:21-22; Mark 11:22-25; Luke 11:13; John 14:12-14; 15:7; Col. 3:17; 1 Thess. 5:17
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, Your people boldly approach Your throne of grace. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Schaeffer: the uses of doxology

Sunday, July 7, 2013
Meditation:
    Then I looked and heard the voice of many angels, numbering thousands upon thousands, and ten thousand times ten thousand. They encircled the throne and the living creatures and the elders. In a loud voice they sang: “Worthy is the Lamb, who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and praise!” Then I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and on the sea, and all that is in them, singing: “To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be praise and honor and glory and power, for ever and ever!”
    —Revelation 5:11-13 (NIV)
Quotation:
    We are not only to sing the doxology, but to be the doxology.
    ... Francis A. Schaeffer (1912-1984), No Little People, Downer Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1974, reprint, Crossway, 2003, p. 236 (see the book)
    See also Rev. 5:11-14; John 3:36; Rom. 15:8-11; Eph. 5:19-20; Phil. 2:9-11; Col. 3:16-17; 1 Tim. 1:17; Jas. 5:13
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, make of my life a song of praise to You. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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